The air needs to get cleaner. In addition, pollution with fine dust and nitrogen dioxide should be massively reduced. This is what the new guidelines of the World Health Organization WHO provide for air quality. In future, the value for NO₂ pollution will no longer be 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air, as prescribed by the legally binding limit values for the EU, but only 10 micrograms. The WHO makes recommendations for the six most important air pollutants: fine dust with particle sizes PM 2.5 and PM 10, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. The WHO recommendation for fine dust PM 2.5 is now five instead of ten micrograms, the EU limit value allows 25 micrograms. The recommendation for fine dust PM 10 is 15 instead of the previous 20 micrograms. The EU limit is 40 micrograms.
Hartmut Herrmann from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig rates the WHO guidelines as a “long-awaited and surprisingly big step in the right direction”. Modeling would show significant excess mortality and morbidity in Europe and worldwide due to components of air pollution. “Keeping the air clean continues to be an important mission for science, business and lawmakers.”
“There are no harmless thresholds.”
Fifteen years after the last guidelines, WHO emphasizes the link between air quality and health. In the meantime, it has been clearly proven that negative effects of air pollution occur at even lower concentrations than previously assumed. “There are no harmless threshold values,” says Nino Künzli from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Every improvement in air quality is worthwhile. “Low concentrations of air pollutants, far below previous reference values, can trigger serious health effects,” says environmental epidemiologist Barbara Hoffmann from the University of Düsseldorf. “Even a bit of air pollution is bad for the body if it is inhaled every day, year after year. Reducing air pollution is also worthwhile financially, because the costs of illness from air pollution are higher than the costs of air pollution control.”
Air pollution is one of the greatest health threats. The European Environment Agency estimates that in Europe alone 417,000 premature deaths are due to it each year. Eight percent of the urban population in Europe are exposed to fine dust PM 2.5, which exceeds the limit values of the EU. If previous WHO guideline values were used as a benchmark, it would be as much as 77 percent. The WHO emphasizes that 80 percent of the deaths attributable to this pollutant could be avoided if their guidelines for fine particulate matter PM2.5 were met.
So far, politics has paid little attention to science
“At the moment we are only below the new WHO guideline values for carbon monoxide in Germany; we are far above the values for ozone, NO₂ and fine dust PM2.5,” says Marcel Langner from the Federal Environment Agency. However, the WHO recommendations are not binding. Limits are set by the legislator; EU standards apply to Germany. So far, politics has paid little attention to science. “There is a need for action, particularly in the area of fine dust, which is smaller than 2.5 micrometers,” says Annette Peters from the Helmholtz Zentrum München. “The EU limit values are far too high and do not protect health. We have been emphasizing that for years.” The guidelines could become explosive due to the decision of the EU Parliament in March. This calls for the EU air quality standards to be updated as soon as the WHO guidelines are published and the limit values to be based on them. The schedule provides for this for the third quarter of 2022.
“The consequences of air pollution have long been underestimated,” says environmental doctor Hans-Peter Hutter from the University of Vienna. “Considerable efforts are required in most EU countries. It is a sad fact that even the old WHO guidelines have not even come close to being achieved in many countries. There must be drastic measures at all levels: road traffic, coal-fired power stations, house fires. Many have.” the advantage that they not only reduce the burden of disease, but also serve to protect the climate. ” The usual lobbyists would have done a lot in the past, for example, to delay the introduction of diesel filters or speed limits and to downplay health effects such as the toxicity of diesel exhaust fumes and NO2. “The EU’s requirements are political decisions on how many additional deaths and illnesses the legislature will tolerate – mainly for economic reasons,” said Hutter.
“The fact that the EU limit values for fine dust are much too high is the result of lobbyists who have put the interests of industry over those of the population,” says Nino Künzli. “Unforgettable German lobbyists who ‘successfully’ fought the WHO guideline values 20 years ago. One argument was that one should not introduce limit values that cannot be reached – an absurd twist that has prevented progress in the EU.” Air pollution control is possible – and a question of political will.